A miner from western Ukraine: under Yanukovych, the Volyn mines were not closed, but “our democratic government” is closing them
The so-called demonopolization process that has begun in Ukraine's energy market will lead to the closure of coal mines in western Ukraine. Yesterday, Fuel and Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn (a Poroshenko protégé) declared the Volyn Basin "unattractive," GolosUa reports.
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Minister of Fuel and Energy Vladimir Demchishin, declaring the unattractiveness of the Volyn basin, doomed the region's mines to closure and miners to lack of work. So says miner from Western Ukraine Viktor Tarasenko (Novovolynsk).
Vladimir Demchishin stated that the mines of the Volyn basin are unattractive economically after a visit to Novovolynsk. The declared process is the so-called demonopolization in the country's energy sector actually consists in the desire of the authorities to fragment and dismember large corporations and reassign them to themselves. That is why it was announced that subsidies for the coal industry would be stopped and that some of the mines would be closed and others would be privatized.
Due to the conflict between Vladimir Demchishin and Rinat Akhmetov, who owns thermal power plants in Western Ukraine, coal mined in Novovolynsk was not supplied to these thermal power plants.
“There was no sales, therefore there were no salaries. This created a debt of up to six months in wages for the miners,” stated Viktor Tarasenko, adding that the miners began to block highways in Volyn as a sign of protest and threatened to block the borders in the Rava-Russkaya area.
“And now the concept of reforming the coal industry does not include the continuation of the work of our mines next year. The tenth mine that we are building is a shame for all of Ukraine. Previously, mines took a maximum of three years to build; this mine takes 26 years to build. They invested 2 billion in it, and Demchishin says that he is not interested in the mine. And who will be responsible for the money invested? Where should the 4 thousand laid off miners go if the mines close? These are people 30-36 years old who have several children. After all, they won’t find work, because we have a depressed region!” Tarasenko emphasized.
A miner from western Ukraine clarified that during Yanukovych’s time the mines were not closed, but when “our democratic government” came to power, a decision was made to close them.